Hi. Can anyone recommend some nice music for someone between Grade 1 and 2 clarinet please? Apart from a couple of tutor books and two Paul Harris books (Music Through Time 1 and Gershwin) I don't actually have anything else and would like to broaden my limited repertoire! Recommendations in any musical style would be appreciated - classical, jazz etc. Many thanks

hi i had the abracadabra book for flute to start with with which i enjoyed and have just seen it in the shop for clarinet. the boosey hawkes books explain things well too failing that a google search should be helpful

i am thinking of hiring a clarinet for a while it see how it suits me so will be asking lots of questions soon

hope this helps abit

monkey flute

Try The Usborne Book of Easy Clarinet Tunes - you'll then be able to tell everybody that you can play Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, Scherehazade, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, the New World Symphony, Handel's Water Music etc My copy is well-thumbed, all played between G1/G2 level. You might also find it quite useful because as well as nice music, it contains info on techniques, signs, notes etc. It was my favourite book at that level (not that I'm much more than that level now but I'm working on it )

For a more mixed bag of music, you could try More Making the Grade - Grade 1 has got Phantom of the Opera, Somethin' Stupid, Any Dream will do, Edelweiss and various other popular tunes.

Although the format of the Usborne book is designed for children, the music in it is very much the sort of music which adults can appreciate. On the other hand, the music in the Abracadabra clarinet book is of less appeal to adults - much shorter, "bitty" pieces and numerous "nursery rhyme" tunes.

Another book which I liked at G1/G2 level was Peter Wastall's Learn as you Play Clarinet. The pieces in it aren't particularly well known, unlike the Usborne book for instance, but they're just quite pleasant to play. I always used to turn to that book after I'd finished practising if I just wanted to relax and not concentrate too hard

Thanks for the advice I'll certainly try the Usborne. I should have said that Learn as you Play is one of the two tutors I have and I do enjoy the tunes in it - some are really lovely to play, although probably not so nice to listen to in my case!


Ooops sorry for repeating the quote in my last post - I'm new here and haven't got the hang of it yet as you can probably tell...

One of the microjazz books would be quite good. I used the second book, but not the first. I think the second book starts at around grade 2 level and goes up to about grade 5, so it might be worth getting the first book. Another one you could try is Up-Grade. Again, I havn't used it at the lower level, but I did use it for grades 2-3 and really loved it.